IN THE MEDIA

MARCO, Vigo, Speaks Out Against the Stigma of AIDS with You Are Not Alone

The ArtAids Foundation presents an exhibition on this illness seen through the eyes of 18 international artists

ÁGATHA DE SANTOS – VIGO

Yesterday, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Vigo (MARCO) embarked on its particular battle against the stigma of AIDS with You Are Not Alone, a group exhibition curated by Hilde Teerlincks and Irene Aristzábal that invites visitors to reflect on the social exclusion faced by AIDS sufferers, through the gaze of 18 international artists who don’t usually work on the subject of AIDS. Co-produced by MARCO, the ArtAids Foundation and the Fundació Miró, and sponsored by Banco Sabadell, You Are Not Alone aims to provoke visitor responses to AIDS and to the exhibition itself, and to contribute to shaping society’s perception of the illness.

“Art transmits ideas and feelings, in relation to the virus too. We’ve seen it happen in other exhibitions. People wonder: What is the artist trying to tell me? What does this work have to do with AIDS? This is what the Foundation tries to do,” explained its president Han Nefkens, a Dutch writer, collector and patron who has previously collaborated with MARCO in The Suspended Moment, a 2006 exhibition in which he presented a selection of works from his private collection. The president of ArtAids, which supports research geared towards developing a vaccine in Spain and sponsors a project that provides support for AIDS sufferers in Thailand, also drew attention to the fact that millions of people in the world still don’t have access to AIDS treatment, a situation that he called “unacceptable.”

Each artist contributes his or her particular gaze on AIDS, its causes and consequences, and the context of the virus today, although the curator Hilde Teerlincks pointed out that they all tackle issues such as stigma and death. “The exhibition also pays homage to the artist Pepe Espaliú who died of AIDS in the nineties, by presenting his videos, which we believed should be part of this show,” she said.

Aside from Espaliú, the artists who have created the 35 works in You Are Not Alone, which will be open until 22 January 2012, are Otto Berchem, Matthew Darbyshire, Latifa Echakhch, Elmgreen & Dragset, Leandro Erlich, David Goldblatt, Juul Hondius, Sutee Kunavichayanont, Deimantas Narkevicius, Shirin Neshat, Lucy + Jorge Orta, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Shirana Shahbazi, Danh Vo, Lawrence Weiner and Lorena Zilleruelo.

Han Nefkens (first on the right) shows one of the artworks to the mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero, accompanied by the director of the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Miguel Molins, and the director of MARCO, Iñaki Martínez Antelo. // J. de Arcos

H+F

Han Nefkens started to collect art in 2000. The H+F Collection, named after himself and his partner Felipe, is in long-term loan to various museums in The Netherlands and abroad. Nowadays Han Nefkens is not only active as a collector but also as an initiator of international art projects, often in collaboration with museums and other art institutions.

Fundació Han Nefkens

The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that was set up in Barcelona in 2009 with the aim of promoting the production of contemporary artworks. The mission is to stimulate artistic creation in Barcelona by offering international artists an opportunity to create artworks and interventions in the city, and to promote other fields of contemporary creation.

Han Nefkens

According to Han Nefkens, sharing is the antidote to loneliness, and he does so through his artistic and anti-AIDS projects and his writing. In 1995, he made his debut with the autobiographical novel Bloedverwanten (“Parents”), which was followed by Twee lege stoelen (“Two empty chairs”, 2006) and De gevlogen vogel (“The bird flew”, 2008). Nefkens also writes short pieces, “vignettes”.